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NCAA WOMEN'S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPMay 24, 2017Missy Farr-KayeRoberta LitiOlivia MehaffeyLinnea StromMonica VaughnSophia ZeebSugar Grove, Illinois THE MODERATOR: We are joined tonight by Arizona State Sun Devils, our national champions. Congratulations on a terrific week and congratulations on your play today. Outstanding. With us today are student-athletes from Arizona State, Roberta Liti, Olivia Mahaffey, Linnea Strom, Monica Vaughn and Sophia Zeeb. Joined by head coach, as well, Missy Farr-Kaye, and Coach Farr-Kaye, if you would talk from an opening statement standpoint about the week you've had, the day you've had, and the national championship. MISSY FARR-KAYE: Wow, this is -- we're all floating on cloud nine. We keep saying, is this real, is this real, and it is. This is a grueling championship now with the format, and it's an exciting format, but you have to be ready to play a lot of golf, and then you factor in some weather delays and problems, and I think we left the hotel at 4:30 a.m. three times and then had 12-hour days, 13-hour days, and it's a lot. But we knew that, and that's been part of our training for the year to try to do that, to be ready for that, to be all in come May 24th. It's thrilling and exciting. Our goal has been to get to the top eight, and let's just get ourselves in the top eight and then let's see what we can do, and then we kept -- okay, accomplished that, move on to the next thing, accomplish that, move on to the next day, and just we took it one day at a time, we didn't get ahead of ourselves. We didn't worry about the future. We were working hard about staying in the present and enjoying the moment, and that's where -- that's where we are, so we're going to enjoy this moment. THE MODERATOR: Monica, talk a little bit about obviously you were here a couple days ago with the individual championship, now you're here as national champions tonight. Talk a little bit about that. MONICA VAUGHN: It's an incredible week. Everyone keeps saying that they can't believe it, but I can totally believe it. We thought it all year, we believed in it every single day all year long, and we accomplished it. To be an individual winner and to win as a team is just incredible. You know, the team win for me is a really special thing, you know, more special than my individual win. To win with my family and everything has been just such incredible moments out there this week, all week, and it's been a long week, I'm really tired, but it's just funny because I played my best golf on the last day on the last round. But that's just the way golf goes, and I'm just really grateful that we did it. Q. Linnea, talk about being able to close out the match and your feelings as you made that last putt. LINNEA STROM: Yeah, as I said before, I really like to kind of have a little pressure on me when I'm playing, and I really thought that this morning, I got set for it, and I don't know, just knowing that we are here all together and our men's team came out supporting us today. I think that helped a lot because there were a lot of people out there today, so it was good to feel like some people from home were out here supporting. Yeah, I like being in that position, so that was good. Q. Olivia, talk about the way you came out of the gate and played so well throughout but you were out from the get-go. Talk about that, setting the table. OLIVIA MEHAFFEY: This week Coach Kaye gave us the opportunity to choose where we wanted to play and find where we were most comfortable, and for me I really like playing 1. I played 1 in Curtis Cup. I played 1 a lot back home before I came here, and it's where feel comfortable. I like to lead; I'm a leader. I like to try and get the first point on the board and get back and support the girls. I'm pretty good at that. So yeah, it was where I wanted to play, and I knew I had one job today when I stepped on the course, that was like start strong, and I pitched in for birdie from the last and birdied the second hole, so I got off to a good start, had a commanding lead, and I think it's nice for the girls out there to be able to look on the scoreboard and see that one of their teammates is 4- or 5-up, and that's what I wanted to do and knew I could do today. Q. Roberta, talk a little bit about the season that you've had, being able to accomplish the national championship for Arizona State. ROBERTA LITI: It was a great season for me. I think after the last few years, this season I had a chance to set my game up a little bit, and I won a tournament a month ago, and I knew the team was ready for this tournament. I knew we were all ready to win this national championship. And this week has just been unreal the whole week. We just like stuck together the whole week, and we just kept it going. We had such good energy, it was amazing. Q. Sophia, talk about the energy level today, obviously a lot of golf here in the last 36 hours or so. Talk a little bit about being able to persevere. SOPHIA ZEEB: Yeah, I mean, it started this morning. We got Mo and Linnea pumped up, and we cheered from the side, and then obviously going into the final, it was great having some people from home because there were a lot of people watching for Northwestern. But I think we kind of like felt comfortable and knew we were going to have a good day, and I felt it on the course. Q. Talk about how heavy it sometimes feels to carry on the tradition at Arizona State. Can you talk about personally what it was like last year at this time not getting here and then how long it took you to get over that and then turn it around in the fall season to get everyone ready? MISSY FARR-KAYE: You know, I took it really hard last year when we didn't make it to Nationals. I tell everybody I didn't sleep for about three weeks, and I'm not joking. It really was tough because I really felt like I let my team down. I told them that after we won regionals by so many this year. I said, you know, last summer I thought, okay, I've got to figure this out, I've got to figure out how to prepare them properly where they're ready to perform and to play well because I know what they're capable of, and with Olivia coming in, I kind of -- it's been kind of a work in progress, and then I really feel like hiring Michelle was kind of the last key for me in getting to -- literally I talked her into leaving a very lucrative job being a team rep, a lot more than an assistant coach makes, and she just was ready for a change and to do something different, and she has so much to give back, and being such a proud Sun Devil, as well. I've spent a lot of hours trying to figure it out and how to best prepare for literally today, and so we figured out how to get to here, and then let's start -- let's take it back from when the team arrives the end of August and through. I don't profess to know everything by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm a disciple of good coaches, and I've been very lucky to have a fantastic -- in fact, I have got to tell you this story. My high school coach, Sister Lynn Windsor, Xavier College Prep in Phoenix, is the most successful high school girls' golf coach in the country, and she is sending me texts, and she said -- I told one of the girls, I'm laughing. I just happened to look at my phone at one point, and she goes, It's Sister; the nuns are praying for you, we're watching Golf Channel, we're praying. And then I got Linda Volstead, who taught me so many things. I'm just trying to continue to be a sponge and to learn and figure out how to help each of these players be successful in everything that they do on and off the golf course, and it's a process. I tell them all the time, I either go to sleep thinking about one of them or one of my three children. We're trying to figure out how to -- okay, who has the most problems today, who do I need to figure out, and they all know -- they probably know more about my boys than my boys want them to know, but I'm like, okay, Riley has got issues today, how can I help him. It does, it really -- it's amazing to have this responsibility to do what I do, and I take it very seriously, and I want to -- and I say this all the time, in recruiting, like these five women and Madison here in the back, it's a huge responsibility to help these women grow and mature. The happiest day is when they graduate. So we had Mo bring her cap and gown to regionals because she missed graduation, and I'm like, by gosh, that's a special day, we are not going to miss it, so we did this graduation walk in our rooms in Lubbock, Texas, and took pictures. To me it's such an achievement. It's just so wonderful. You know, I want to really enjoy this and celebrate it, but then I'm going to -- my brain is going to be spinning, okay, what can we do, what can we do for next year. And maybe that's what I needed. Maybe that's what -- you learn and grow from mistakes. I tell them all the time, you don't make mistakes; the only mistake is something you don't learn from. So every once in a while I've got to kind of turn the camera on myself and go, okay, maybe I should listen to myself, and I've learned a tremendous amount this past year. So sometimes out of that, great things can come from it. Q. Speaking of next year, obviously Monica will be gone. There's a lot of talent on this team -- MISSY FARR-KAYE: Everybody is coming back, and we've got a freshman coming in from Spain. Yeah, this team is still hungry. I know that there's still things that they want to do and to achieve, and it'll be great to have everybody be ready to go. Graduating Monica Vaughn is not going to be easy, and I'm really proud of myself, I haven't cried today yet about it. Every time we started, I said, okay, I can't be nostalgic about it, but when you spend four years with somebody, it's just so special. Obviously she has had a huge impact on our program, and she takes that role very seriously. I can't imagine -- it's going to be tough. You're irreplaceable, kid. Q. Linnea, you said you like to have the pressure on you during match play. What were you thinking when she was 1-up like on 10 or 11? LINNEA STROM: That was kind of a wake-up call for me because I feel like -- I wasn't struggling in the beginning, but I had a couple of putts that I missed, that I should have made, and then I had just made a short birdie putt on No. 10 to go to 3-up, and then when she made the eagle, I was suddenly 1-up, and then I kind of felt like I need to do something right now if I want to finish this. Then I made birdie at 12 and 13, missed my birdie putt on 14, and then I saw that Olivia actually came to me on No. 12, I saw that she was done, and that gave me energy, and then I just wanted to get it done as soon as possible. Q. You talked about May 24th all year long, and I'm curious how the dream matches up with the reality. MONICA VAUGHN: It's better. The reality is better. Q. I would hope so. MONICA VAUGHN: But I mean, just -- it's incredible to me how many people keep saying, it's unbelievable, I can't believe it, and I'm just like, I can believe it. I can totally believe it. I don't know why you guys are saying you can't believe it, because I totally have believed it since day one. You know, we have worked so hard for this, and we have stressed about it, we have worked for it every single day this year. Look at us now, national champions, so it worked. No, absolutely reality is better than the dream, and you know, you just keep dreaming it and it's going to happen. Q. Monica, obviously Coach has said some pretty nice things about you, but how about changing roles and talk about the coach you've played for for four years. MONICA VAUGHN: I might cry. KK has been like my second mom, and then we had the addition of Michelle this year. I mean, Missy and I have been through so much together with golf, outside of golf, life, school, everything. I mean, she's been there for me every step of the way, and as much as I appreciate her as my golf coach, I appreciate her 100 times more as a mentor and as a friend and as a family member. She's part of my family, and she just would throw off anything in a heartbeat for me and any of the girls on this team, she would do anything for us and help us in any way that she can. I think that's the pure essence of what it means to be a Sun Devil and a National Championship coach and just a great coach in general. I mean, she really is inspiring to all of us every single day because she does -- she's able to just love and support no matter what's going on in her own life. She never brings a bad attitude to practice. She always has a great attitude, a great outlook on life, and she instills that on all of us and not just to be great golfers but to be great people, and I really feel that after four years at ASU that I'm a better person because of Missy Farr-Kaye. Q. In addition to being national champions, Monica, one of the results is that you're going to be able to play in an LPGA Tour event. Talk about that. MONICA VAUGHN: Well, actually I was invited to play in a JLPGA event during that time, so I'm going to have to skip out on that and join the LPGA Marathon Classic. But no, this will be my very first LPGA event, my very first professional event I've ever played in, so that's huge for me. You know, I'm lucky to be there with my teammate. It's going to be a blast. I'm really looking forward to it. I've never played. So we'll just give it my best shot and see how it goes. ROBERTA LITI: Yeah, I didn't even know that we got this opportunity through one of the teams. It came as a surprise, and I'm really happy to have that opportunity to play in an LPGA event, and I'm very excited to do that with Monica, and it's going to be a lot of fun and to see how it is out there with the professionals. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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